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Parties in the Park celebrates 25 years

By Tricia Herries

Wednesday is the furthest day of the week from the weekend, and since 1983, St. Louis area workers and residents have been getting over that hump with Parties in the Park, a May-through-September after-work social gathering with music, food, drinks and fun at Clayton Shaw Park.

On May 14, Parties in the Park will kick off its 25th year.

“When it started, it was the most popular event in town,” said Ellen Gale, executive director of Clayton Chamber of Commerce, which sponsors the event. “Shaw Park was the place to be after work, and Parties in the Park is still going strong.”

Gale attributes its success to the setting, support from the city of Clayton, dedicated volunteers and loyal sponsors.

Stuart Zimmerman, former Clayton Chamber of Commerce president, remembers how the parties were started.

“We held a meeting early in ’83 and asked the board what we could do to promote the town and what we could do that would be fun,” Zimmerman said.

According to Zimmerman, then-board member Jim Otis, former fullback for the St. Louis Football Cardinals, said that Columbus, Ohio, had something called Rally in the Alley where people went after work to have a beer, hear live music and have a good time and suggested starting something similar in Clayton.

Zimmerman knew Clayton had a beautiful park in Shaw Park so suggested that a "Party in the Park" might be Clayton’s solution. He formed a Parties in the Park committee, which had the task of approaching Lee Evett, Clayton’s city manager, for approval.

“The meeting (with Evett) started with me saying what we would like to do, of taking one or two Wednesday afternoons in the summer of 1983, inviting residents and office workers to come down to Shaw Park, have a band, some food and maybe a little beer and have a good time,” Zimmerman said.

Then Zimmerman said, Otis took the meeting into his own hands and said, “That is not what we want to do at all. What we want is every Wednesday afternoon to have everyone down to the park, have beer, music and food and party into the night.”

Zimmerman feared it was a lost cause, but Evett loved the idea, and Parties in the Park was approved. The event was not every Wednesday, but once a month, Parties in the Park was the happening social scene.

“We had bigger crowds than we ever would have imagined,” Zimmerman said. “Someone told me along the way that besides Cardinal baseball, they sold more Budweiser products than any event.”

From its beginning, Parties in the Park has been the major fundraiser for the Chamber of Commerce and has given back to the city in more ways than one. At the end of each event, the after-party explodes to Clayton’s streets and into its bars and restaurants, to the delight of business owners.

“Before Parties in the Park, Clayton was dead after work hours, and this made Clayton exciting,” Leonard Adreon, a Clayton Chamber of Commerce board member, said.

From its beginning part of event proceeds have funded gifts for the city, such as the corporate tent that currently houses Parties in the Park’s Martini Lounge, a great place to sit down and relax during the event.

The Martini Lounge, the addition of a performance stage and booking a wide variety of high caliber talent are a few examples of how event organizers continue to work to keep Parties in the Park fresh and energized.

Adreon said that in 1983, board members with guts and confidence proposed an event and took a risk on something that no one had ever done before in the St. Louis area, and 25 years later, that risk is still paying off.

Clayton Chamber of Commerce President Judy Gruender has been attending Parties in the Park for 25 years and said the only difference in recent years is that the crowd seems to keep getting younger – in her eyes, at least.

“When it first started, who would have thought that, first, it would have gone on this long, and, second, that it would be as popular as it is,” Gruender said.

For the 2008 Parties in the Park schedule and to share Parties in the Park memories, visit partiesinthepark.org.